Over 350+ sports chaplains serving the world of sport, in clubs, training facilities & events!

Welcome to Sports Chaplaincy UK

There are hundreds of chaplains in the UK and Ireland, providing spiritual and pastoral care to professional and amateur sport. Sports Chaplaincy UK is increasingly involved in helping sporting organisations support, train and appoint sports chaplains.

Chaplains can be of help to all sorts of people involved with sport, when crisis, need or difficulty comes. I commend the idea of sports chaplaincy and the work of Sports Chaplaincy UK to you.

Sir Alex Ferguson, CBE

Director & Ambassador of Manchester United

As a former player, coach and now manager I cannot recommend highly enough the vital role played by chaplains within football clubs.

Chris Powell

Former manager of Huddersfield Town FC and Charlton Athletic

I would encourage all players the importance of talking and getting off things of your chest. Chaplains need to remind the players that the support is there and they can talk to you about anything – talking is so important.

Robbie Hunter Paul

Retired Rugby League International and TV pundit

Chaplaincy brings a personal touch- people feel they can be listened to as individuals. If chaplaincy was established in every club, I believe it would be of huge benefit to the game as a whole.

Sir Ian McGeechan, OBE

Former coach of Scotland and the British and Irish Lions

Pastoral Support

Our main area of support is pastoral and spiritual care, we help support chaplains in a variety of sporting settings. Find out more

Inspire Magazine 2016

Inspire Magazine is our annual magazine with the latest updates around Sports Chaplaincy UK. Find out more

Recent News

Over 1,200 people packed the Premier Suite at Macron Stadium on Monday evening to take part in Bolton Wanderers’ annual carol service.

The service was hosted by Club Chaplain Phil Mason and Tower FM presenter Jon Holling and music was provided by the Bolton Hoover Brass Band under the direction of Craig Mann. All the traditional Christmas carols were sung including the Number One carol of all time Silent Night which is 200 years old this year.

Rev Matt Baker, who oversees all the football club chaplains in the country, paid a visit to the Proact earlier this week to meet Chesterfield's chaplains, Paul Hollingworth and Danny Woolf.
Rev Baker explained how his role came about. He said: "I've been chaplain at Charlton for 16 years. I started in 2000, so I've seen us in the Premier League, the Championship and League One.

'I had to tell my players our keeper had taken his own life': Gillingham's Justin Edinburgh on dealing with tragedy. Justin Edinburgh is reflecting on his decade as a Tottenham player when his eyes light up and his smile widens.
'Paul Gascoigne was the best by a mile,' says Edinburgh, who returns to White Hart Lane on Wednesday for the first time as a manager, with Gillingham in the EFL Cup. 'He was better than Klinsmann. Jurgen changed the mentality of the club. He changed the way I thought about football.

Read a great article from Danny Driver, chaplain to Cambridge United Academy. To open this article please click on 'Read More' and then you can see the link to open the document.

The World of professional football is a challenging place for anybody to work, Christian or not. Success is heavily dependent upon performance, and if you're not performing then in the harsh reality of professional football your chances of success are slim........

The first chaplain to Swansea City Ladies Football Club has been appointed. Her name is Ruth Emanuel. She is a member of Woodlands Church in Swansea. Having 'dipped her toe' into tournament chaplaincy at the International Paralympic Committee European Athletics Championships in Swansea in 2014, she has since felt called to serve in a local chaplaincy and is responding to a request from the ladies section at Swansea City FC